In January 2011, while speaking at the DLD Conference, Brian
Sullivan, CEO of SKY Deutschland, suggested that social media could
help TV reclaim its place as a social unifer and reconnect us with
the original TV experience. TV once had the power to create social
and societal events, but in modern society, the experience has been
fragmented and turned into an individual and contained occurrence
by the frantic pace of our lifestyles. TV has become something that
happens between eight and eleven in the evening and is no longer
the social glue that sparks conversations and enthusiasm far
outside the TV channels peak hours. But in Sullivan's own words,
"the internet is bringing TV back to the water cooler."
His opinion is based on the positive reactions to interactive
platforms such as Google TV and social TV, collaborative content,
parallel gameplay and simultaneous activities. As Kevin Slavin,
Chief Creative Officer at Starling - a company that specialises in
understanding the area between social TV and collaborative content
(with a seminal amount of game mechanics to keep viewers and
players enthusiastic and dedicated) - suggests: "If you were to
turn on the TV and be given the opportunity to watch a random show
or something your friends were watching, what would you
choose?"
Making the TV experience kinetic
Slavin is the former chairman of the New York based gaming company
Area/Code and is one of the thought leaders on the subject.
Area/Code has vast experience in collaborative content and has
worked on numerous programmes such as MTV Backchannel's The Hills,
which connected viewers through an online game/chatting application
as the show aired.
The company also helped advertise reruns of The Sopranos, which
challenged viewers to photograph Soprano posters and boards around
the city and sort them into chronological order online, based on
the order the characters first appeared in the show. Viewers could
then check their scores live on their laptops during the show's
broadcast time.
These two examples provided innovative out-of-the-box thinking and
set a high standard for other campaigns to follow. Whereas a lot of
campaigns often fail to encourage viewer interaction, Area/Code's
work really succeeded in getting people to chat and share content.
Slavin suggests that for a collaborative campaign to work, it needs
to address the correct issues. The main challenge doesn't come from
getting people to meet and talk; they are already doing that. The
main challenge is working how to make this activity kinetic.
Peter Hirshberg, a colleague of Slavin and CEO of RE:imagine
Group, argues that a Twitter stream doesn't really feel like media.
It needs to be connected and weaved into content in order to become
a part of a show's storyline and offering. Starling is already
doing this, and runs a collaborative component on MTV's Skins
programme.
If TV is the centre of gravity, it can provide a broader
experience
But this is not just an area for explorative small start-ups. Ynon
Kreiz, Chairman and CEO at the Endemol Group, the world's largest
independent TV production company, is challenging all of his
creatives to think outside the TV screen, to view TV as the centre
of gravity that not only brings people to the screen, but ofers
them a much broader experience. This has already been trialled with
a show called The Money Drop, which allows viewers to play the game
online at the same time it is being broadcast on TV. It has been a
marked success.
The future of the TV - which combines TV with the collaborative
and connected technologies of the internet - is actually already
here. TV viewers have been voting for years with their mobile
phones and can easily switch focus between the television and the
computer on their laps. The technology is already in place.
Start-ups and big production companies are now moving into the
scene and can see the enthusiasm that is out there. But it is
important to realise that free riding on the wave of engagement
that is happening on Facebook and Twitter does not just create a
larger experience, it creates an additional one. The challenge is
figuring out how to tap into it. The merger of internet and TV has
taken a quantum leap in the last year. Hirshber is standing right
in the middle of it; and sees start-ups and ideas at an enormous
speed. Kreiz offers a clear challenge:
Whoever figures out how people can be connected to their friends
and family, and interact with them through the content on the TV -
without having a four to fve meter long arm stretching across the
living room - will be the next Steve Jobs".
Previously, storytellers and producers would steer clear of
audience involvement as they thought that such input would negate
the professionalism of a show's content, whose story and production
values had been constructed by seasoned experts. However, it now
seems that audience interaction does not affect the storyline
directly, but can play out alongside it in order to enrich the
overall experience.
Online is an activity
It all comes down to the wonders of multi-tasking. The solution is
making laptop and mobile augmentations to the big screen and then
merge stories across platforms and activities - at the same
time.
Even if some niche and big players are already well towards
maturity in this segment, more or all content-producing companies
will need to follow suit. They will need to put a stake through the
popular and wrongful myths that connected technologies are merely
distribution platforms - compared to Radio and TV that are
storytelling mediums - and that the way to utilise online is to
publish additional content to be enjoyed after or in between
shows.
Online is not just a storage facility, it is an activity that
allows viewers to interact with their favourite content and
collaborate. And what we need to do is embrace multitasking and
design stories that activate people, not just entertain them.
People multitasking is an opportunity, not a problem; the laptop
is a multiplier, not a distraction; and TV with tightly directed
and broadcasted events is the centre of gravity that provides
centrifugal momentum for a whole host of experiences.